Resumo:
This research seeks to classify the fitness culture as a lived religion. For that, it is organized in three parts composed by their respective chapters. The first part seeks to highlight elements that make fitness culture a legitimate culture. These elements are divided into three approaches, namely, the historical review of physical exercises, the structure of the fitness culture and its functioning. Through the information collected in the first part and the internal testimony of the fitness culture itself, the second part confronts such information and internal testimonies with the classic concepts of religion, so that, from this confrontation, the fitness culture can be characterized as being a lived religion. Once characterized as being a lived religion, the third part of the research both reflects the concept of lived religion, and proposes a description of the spiritual journey (itinerary) of bodybuilding practitioners and, consequently, reflects what contributions this experimentation of spirituality has in the practice of physical exercises and how they can contribute to religious institutions. From the point of view of the nature of the research, it is of a simple nature since it proposes to generate new knowledge for the progress of scientific research. In this sense, its objective, as a scientific procedure, is exploratory in nature since the direction of the subject addressed is still little explored. Regarding the technical procedure, the present research is both bibliographic - as it makes use of other research and published materials - as well as participatory research (at least in a certain sense) - this is because the researcher is not neutral and, in some cases, he is the researched subject itself. Thus, it is a qualitative / descriptive research since the researched object is described from its particularity and complexity and through comparisons and interpretations making its reality understandable. These directions made it possible to arrive at the intended results, namely, 1) that the fitness culture is a legitimate culture; 2) that this culture can be understood as a lived religion; 3) that this lived religion is characterized by experiencing a journey (itinerary) of spirituality and, finally; 4) that this spiritual experience through the practice of physical exercises can serve as a relevant indicator for a more bodily spiritual practice in officially recognized religious institutions.
